Q: How long does the state have to get you to court on Preliminary hearing on felony charges
A:
There is no statutory limitation governing the time it takes for the Commonwealth of Virginia to go forward with a preliminary hearing; however, the Code does regulate the timeline for trials once a felony case makes its way to the Circuit Court for trial.
That being said, a judge of a district court has the authority to reject a prosecutor's request for a continuance if there is no good reason offered for delaying a preliminary hearing (the odds of this will likely go up if an accused is held continuously in government custody).
A: There is no statutory requirement that a defendant have their preliminary hearing within a set amount of days. Similarly, there has been no precedent set by any of the Courts regarding the timeline for holding a preliminary hearing. Virginia Code section § 19.2-243 does deal with the amount of time the prosecution has to start the trial when there is no preliminary hearing and the defendant has been indicted.
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